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Publication
Planning, Connecting, and Financing Cities--Now : Priorities for City Leaders
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013-01-21)This report provides Mayors and other policymakers with a policy framework and diagnostic tools to anticipate and implement strategies that can avoid their cities from locking into irreversible physical and social structures. At the core of the policy framework are the three main dimensions of urban development. · Planning— where the focus is on making land transactions easier, and making land use regulations more responsive to emerging needs especially to coordinate land use planning with infrastructure, natural resource management, and risks from hazards; · Connecting—where the focus is on making a city’s markets (for labor, goods, and services) more accessible to neighborhoods in the city and to other cities. Here the focus is also on investing in public transport, and pricing private transport fully; and · Financing— where the focus is on how a city can leverage its own assets to finance new assets for example, through land value capture, establishing creditworthiness for local governments and utilities to access domestic debt and bond markets and how to set clear and consistent rules to attract private investors to create jobs in cities. This report also distills lessons from prototypes urbanization diagnostics which have been piloted to reflect challenges for countries at nascent (Uganda, Vietnam), intermediate (China, India, Indonesia), and mature (Brazil, Colombia, South Korea, Turkey) urbanization. These diagnostics under the World Bank's Urbanization Review program have engaged strategic counterparts, such as those in national ministries of finance and planning, in thinking about policy choices that influence urbanization and city development. -
Publication
Matching Contributions for Pensions : A Review of International Experience
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2013)Establishing robust, equitable, and effective social protection is essential to reducing poverty and boosting prosperity at all levels of development. The demographic transition that has already transformed most high-income societies will exert similar and growing pressures on others, reinforcing the role of pensions and savings for old age as a central pillar of social protection systems. One possible solution that has emerged in recent years that offers the potential to overcome this challenge is the provision of contribution matches to provide an immediate and powerful incentive for participation in pension saving systems. Originating in several high-income settings there are now a number of innovations and substantial experience in low-income countries in using this design to stimulate coverage and savings. This experience now provides a rich opportunity for learning, not just from the longer experience of a few high-income countries but also the more meaningful South-South learning across developing countries.This volume, which reviews the experience with matching pension contributions across the range of countries that have used the design, makes an initial, but critically important investment in this learning process. The description and analysis of this experience which is the product of partnership and collaboration across many public and private institutions provide an invaluable early assessment of the design to inform policy makers and practitioners as well as serve as a model for the kind of cooperation that will be required to address this difficult challenge. At the World Bank, we look forward to being part of this learning process of how to best provide old-age security for all. -
Publication
Characterizing the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the Middle East and North Africa : Time for Strategic Action
(World Bank, 2010)Despite a fair amount of progress on understanding human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) epidemiology globally, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is the only region where knowledge of the epidemic continues to be very limited, and subject to much controversy. It has been more than 25 years since the discovery of HIV, but no scientific study has provided a comprehensive data-driven synthesis of HIV/AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome) infectious spread in this region. The current report provides the first comprehensive scientific assessment and data-driven epidemiological synthesis of HIV spread in MENA since the beginning of the epidemic. It is based on a literature review and analysis of thousands of widely unrecognized publications, reports, and data sources extracted from scientific literature or collected from sources at the local, national, and regional levels. The recommendations provided here focus on key strategies related to the scope of this report and its emphasis on understanding HIV epidemiology in MENA as a whole. The recommendations are based on identifying the status of the HIV epidemic in MENA, through this synthesis, as a low HIV prevalence setting with rising concentrated epidemics among priority populations. General directions for prevention interventions as warranted by the outcome of this synthesis are also discussed briefly, but are not delineated because they are beyond the scope of this report. This report was not intended to provide intervention recommendations for each MENA country. -
Publication
Social Protection and Labor at the World Bank, 2000-08
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2009)In autumn 2000, the World Bank's board approved the first ever strategy for the new social protection and labor sector, and in January 2001, the sector published the strategy. The subtitle, from safety net to springboard, indicated the World Bank's move toward a broader understanding of poverty reduction and the relationship of risk to poverty. Because risks and access to appropriate risk management instruments matter for poverty reduction and development, the strategy proposed a new conceptual framework - social risk management that will review and reform existing interventions and propose new ones to better assist the vulnerable in addressing the many risks to which they are exposed. After seven years of implementation, it was time to review the strategy and work of the areas of selected core competence: labor market, social insurance (in particular pensions), social safety nets, social funds, disability and development, and risk and vulnerability analysis. The strategic position, its development, and the results by the sector since the launch of its strategy were reviewed and presented to the World Bank's committee on development effectiveness at the end of 2007. The review included a stocktaking of the analytical work and lending operations in each of the six core competence areas. The result of this review and the six stocktaking papers are presented in this publication. They reveal the progress that the World Bank has made in understanding the importance of social risk management for poverty reduction and the critical contribution it makes to equitable and sustainable growth. -
Publication
Public Finance in China : Reform and Growth for a Harmonious Society
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)This publication focuses on public finance, development economics, and the Chinese economy. The government will focus on the public good aspects of education and training-compulsory education and some aspects of higher education and training. The publication encourages seven reforms including raising government expenditure on education to four percent of gross domestic product (GDP), and ensuring that all children actually receive nine years of basic education. Improving and widening access to medical care, especially for the rural population. The target is to extend the cooperative medical scheme to 80 percent of the rural population from the current coverage rate of just over 20 percent. China has sufficient fiscal resources to afford the level and type of spending commensurate with a harmonious society. This reallocation of resources can be done only gradually. It must go hand in hand with a better specification of roles and functions of the various levels of China and stronger mechanisms for accountability, to ensure that poorer local governments use the resources given to them. -
Publication
Unleashing Prosperity : Productivity Growth in Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)The analysis presented in this report assembles, for the first time, evidence from a variety of sources in the countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union to show that policy and institutional reforms are important in achieving higher productivity growth. However, significant challenges remain in sustaining that growth. Many countries that started the reform process early, such as the new member states of the European Union, have come to resemble advanced market economies and face challenges in competing successfully in the global economy that are similar to the challenges faced by other European countries. For these new European Union members, the report argues, policies that facilitate innovation and firm expansion will be a key. But for other countries that started the reform process later, such as the countries of Southeastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, there is still a need to address the legacy of transition. For these countries, policies that accelerate restructuring and ease the entry and exit of firms will continue to be essential. This report - part of a series of regional studies of the World Bank's Europe and Central Asia region that has already covered poverty and inequality, the enhancement of job opportunities, trade and integration, migration and remittances, and the challenges posed by aging populations is intended as a contribution to the author thinking about how the World Bank may work more effectively with client states and other partners in the region to promote growth and foster higher living standards in a rapidly changing World. -
Publication
South Asian Bond Markets : Developing Long-Term Finance for Growth
(Washington, DC : World Bank, 2008)Bond markets play an essential part in economies. As part of a diversified financial system, a well-developed domestic bond market can help provide the long-term financing needed for sustainable growth. It can also produce broad-ranging benefits throughout the economy. In South Asia the development of domestic debt securities markets lags. The markets remain small compared both with the size of the region's economies and with markets in East Asia. Even in India the market is still small relative to Gross Domestic Product (GDP), suggesting that long-term debt financing remains at an early stage in the region. Equity markets and banks still dominate South Asian financial systems. Measures are needed to enhance both the depth and the breadth of South Asian bond markets, to bring them into line with those in East Asia and, in the long run, with those in Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. This study assesses domestic debt securities markets in South Asia, identifies constraints to their development, and recommends measures for developing deeper, broader, and more efficient markets that can provide a competitive source of finance across a wide range of maturities for different debt issuers. The study covers five countries-Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Within the region the development of domestic debt securities markets varies widely. India's is the most developed. Its experience, along with those of East Asian economies, suggests that much potential remains for developing South Asian bond markets and expanding their contribution to growth and development. Greater regional integration of South Asian bond markets could add to the benefits. -
Publication
Risk Analysis for Islamic Banks
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008)This publication provides a comprehensive overview of topics related to the assessment, analysis, and management of various types of risks in the field of Islamic banking. It is an attempt to provide a high-level framework (aimed at non-specialist executives) attuned to the current realities of changing economies and Islamic financial markets. The Islamic financial system is not limited to banking; it also covers capital formation, capital markets, and all types of financial intermediation and risk transfer. Islamic finance was practiced predominantly in the Muslim world throughout the middle ages, fostering trade and business activities with the development of credit. The growth of Islamic finance coincided with the current account surpluses of oil-exporting Islamic countries. The Middle East saw a mushrooming of small commercial banks competing for surplus funds. The Islamic Republics of Iran, Pakistan, and Sudan announced their intention to make their financial systems compliant with Shariah. -
Publication
Minding the Gaps : Integrating Poverty Reduction Strategies and Budgets for Domestic Accountability
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2008)The Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) approach aims to enhance accountability by promoting the participation of domestic stakeholders in the formulation of clear and realistic development goals. This study offers practical insights for donors and national governments on how to strengthen the links between PRSs and national budgets, with a view to improving domestic accountability. It aims to answer two principal questions:what challenges have arisen in countries where efforts have been made to integrate the PRS with the budget, and what lessons have been generated by these experiences and what are the potential entry points for reforms to strengthen PRS-budget links. To answer these questions, the study reviews a series of case studies that document the status of budget and PRS integration in a sample of nine low-income countries -- Albania, Burkina Faso, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Uganda -- and the links among policies, budgets, and service delivery in four higher-income countries that are internationally considered to be successful reformers in public financial management -- Australia, Chile, the Republic of Korea, and South Africa. -
Publication
Tools for Institutional, Political, and Social Analysis of Policy Reform : A Sourcebook for Development Practitioners
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007)This Sourcebook deals with social analysis in policy reform, encompassing the transition from gaining a better understanding of the distributional impacts of proposed or continuing reform to influencing a more informed and locally embedded process of policy review and design. In a generic sense, the term "social analysis" encompasses institutional, political, and social analyses. These three overlapping areas, derived from different disciplinary backgrounds, focus on the rules and relations that underpin and influence reform outcomes: Institutional analysis looks at the rules that people develop to govern group behavior and interaction in political, economic, and social spheres of life. Institutional analysis is based on an understanding that these rules-whether formally constructed or informally embedded in cultural practice-mediate and distort, sometimes fundamentally, the expected impacts of policy reform. Political analysis looks at the structure of power relations and often-entrenched interests of different stakeholders that affect decision making and distributional outcomes. Political analysis is built on recognition that political interests underpin many areas of policy debate and economic reform, challenging assumptions about the technical nature of policy making. Social analysis looks at the social relationships that govern interaction at different organizational levels, including households, communities, and social groups. Social analysis is built on an understanding of the role of social and cultural norms in governing relationships within and between groups of social actors, with implications for the degree of inclusion and empowerment of specific social groups.